Professional Documents
Culture Documents
rights but it is a
constitutional provision
which should not be
questioned.
Nur Amanina Omar
Asyafiqah Ahmad
Halimaton Saadiah Abu Samah
Amiera Fasya
Definition
Bumiputra
History
The term of this special position has been;
the Reid Commision which draft the
constitution initially proposed that Art.153
expire after 15 years unless renewed by the
Parliament of Malaysia.
The Reid Commission specified that the
intent of Article 153 was to address the
imbalance between the Chinese and Malays
in terms of economic equity.
After the May 13 incident in 1969 there was
an argument within the government
concerning whether the special position of
the Bumiputras ought to have a sunset
clause.
Policy
NEP launch
Rights or Constitution
Provision?
Read through the Constitution to look for an answer to
these Malay "rights", perhaps the first thing that has
struck you is that familiar terminologies such as Malay
"special rights", Malay "special privileges" or Malay
"rights" are no where to be found in the Constitution.
The provisions favouring Malays are in fact quite
moderate, and certain.
Similarly, those provisions protecting the non-Malays
as a
counter-balance to the special position of the Malays
under the same Article 153 are also surprisingly quite
well conceived and fair.
Early debate
Singapores Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew publicly
questioned the need for Article 153 in Parliament, and
called for a Malaysian Malaysia.
The tension led to the 1964 racial riots. Eventually, the
Tunku decided to ask Singapore, through Lee and some
of his closest confidantes, to secede from Malaysia.
Eventually, Lee agreed to do so, and Singapore
became an independent nation in 1965.
Constitution of Singaporecontains an article, Article
152, that names the Malays as "indigenous people" of
Singapore and therefore requiring special safeguarding
of their rights and privileges as such. However, the
article specifies no policies for such safeguarding.
Art.136
Article 136 also consists of one sentence,
which reads: "All persons of whatever
race in the same grade in the service of
the Federation shall, subject to the terms
and conditions of their employment, be
treated
impartially."
Conclusion
1. The present clamour for Malay "special rights" as sacrosanct racial privileges
of a privileged race, especially under the ideological ambit of Ketuanan Melayu
(Malay the master race), is in conflict with the letters and
spirit of the Constitution.
2. The special position of the Malays as prescribed under Article 153 of the
Constitution is limited in scope to only the reservation of reasonable quotas in
these 3 sectors: public services, educational places and business licenses.
3) Our Constitution provides for only one class of citizenship and all citizens are
equal before the law. The presence of Article 153 does not alter this fact, as it is
meant only to protect the Malays from being "squeezed" by other races by
allowing the reservation of reasonable quotas on certain sectors of national life.
THE
END